This book examines the ways in which symbols of white working-class labor and identity have become signifiers of a more authentic, mythologized American identity rooted in a sense of goodness, exceptionalism, and racial purity as a defense mechanism against social change. The volume traces the escalation of this belief from seemingly innocuous popular things like Bruce Springsteen and lifestyle trucks to white nationalist black metal and The Turner Diaries, with an examination of the long-standing conventions of the pastoral tradition and melodramatic form as ways of seeing and hearing that reinforce the idea that only some American experiences make valid American stories.

This book examines the ways in which symbols of white working-class labor and identity have become signifiers of a more authentic, mythologized American identity rooted in a sense of goodness, exceptionalism, and racial purity as a defense mechanism against social change. The volume traces the escalation of this belief from seemingly innocuous popular things like Bruce Springsteen and lifestyle trucks to white nationalist black metal and The Turner Diaries, with an examination of the long-standing conventions of the pastoral tradition and melodramatic form as ways of seeing and hearing that reinforce the idea that only some American experiences make valid American stories.